Email Practices in Large Organisations - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: Email Practices in Large Organisations Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name (02, 03, 2009) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….. 2. Methodology…….…….……………………………………………………………….. 3. Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………... Research Proposal: Email Practices in Large Organisations Introduction Computers, and so the internet, are included in almost every major area of our lives: art, education, entertainment, business, communication, culture, media, medicine, and transportation. Many children start interacting with computers at three or four years of age. An important question here is whether computer and internet behavior is affected due to gender. The internet has been dominated by the male population since its beginnings in the 1970s (King, Grinter & Pickering, 1997). According to some studies the gender gap in the use of internet has lessened but not completely. An example here can be that of the surveys of World Wide Web (WWW) users. These surveys were conducted by the Graphic Visualization and Usability Center (GVUC) at Georgia Tech University and according to them there had been a major increase in the number of woman users from 6% in 1994 to 39% in 1997 (GVUC, 1997). E-mail is evolving from a straight forward advertising medium into a powerful, measurable and desirable communications tool. The tool is not only there for acquisition and loyalty marketing professionals but also for those who are in corporate communications, sales, HR and customer service. Due to this change, numerous statements that had launches e-mail marketing several years ago are rapidly becoming out of date. Most of the large organizations have started making considerable investments in e-mail programs. Large and medium sized organizations spend more than $1.4 billion on third party support for their e-mail programs in 2001 (Diorio, 2002). Industries are spending more and more on e-mail based communications due to the fact that executives are starting to realize the strength of e-mail communications in growing revenues, reduce expenses and leverage influence present investments in content, customer data and software. More than 95 percent of large and medium organisations are following e-mail as a channel for customer communications (Diorio, 2002). This is due to the fact that executives have started realizing the ability of the e-mail channel to increase revenues, diminish costs and influence the present investments in content, customer data and software. The distinctions between women and men’s responses to the technology is important in the work sector as internet activities are becoming more and more important to the processes carried out in an organisation. Now more and more of women are signing on to use the Internet which has been leading to a gradual decline in the gender unevenness in the adoption and use of the Internet (Weiser, 2000). According to certain facts the gender asymmetry may possibly be reversing, especially in the United States (Dholakia & Kshetri, n.d.). Future changes in the adoption and use of Internet and email will be influenced by changes in gender roles. Through this paper we aim to check for the existence of a gender gap in the adoption of e-mail at work, and to study its implications in terms of substitution, identity and participation effects. The main questions here are not whether women are present but instead what kind of authority and influence do they have, plus whether the settings they work within are still largely dominated by men. We include data collected by various large organizations, to describe changes in gender asymmetry over time and space. Methodology Research has been done in the past to find out if there is any link between gender issues and internet use (Karin & Wiburg, 1995). An important research was done by Belle & Stander (n.d.). In order to research into the gender differences in e-mail practices in a large organisation we would obviously have to undertake some studies. Interviews can be taken of the managers as well as other employees of the organisation and questionnaires can be asked to be filled. E-mail practices may include using e-mail for advertising and marketing, interacting with customers, communicating with partner industries, etc. E-mail can raise participatory relations or strengthen command-and-control hierarchies depending on the utilization and shared perception of this medium. Three types of communication include (Biggiero & Corsi, n.d.): Subordinates with supervisors (bottom-up) Supervisors with subordinates (top-down) Peer-to-peer In order to research into the gender differences in the use of e-mail in a large organisation, a study can be undertaken. The summary of such a research can be (Biggiero & Corsi, n.d.): One multinational company (four subsidiaries. May include: Germany, Italy, Netherlands and United Kingdom) Same research in each of the four countries Complementary questionnaire & interviews Topics: identity, trust and norms, substitution & participation and decision making (PDM) Specific research questions To begin with such an organisation needs to be chosen that would be ideal for the purpose of this study. As we are researching into e-mail practices of a large organisation and considering the gender differences in the use of e-mail, we need to look for a company that is not only big but technologically advanced as well. A multinational company would be ideal as the differences in gender issues in various countries would also be taken into reflection. Once such an organisation has been chosen, the project can be carried ahead and there is a need to look further and get data that would enable one to come to a conclusion for the research. One thing that has to be remembered is that the same research has to be conducted in each of the four countries (or whatever the number of countries that are being considered). This would not allow for bias or any factors that may result in disparities in results if there have been different researches undertaken in various countries. Once the organisation and the countries where the research would be undertaken have been decided, the method of research has to be planned. An ideal method would include complementary questionnaires and interviews. The topics of such questionnaires may cover areas such as identity, trust and norms, substitution & participation and decision making (PDM). Some example questions that could be asked relative to these topics are (Biggiero & Corsi, n.d.): Does e-mail reinforce/undermine power/status differentials by gender? How does the diffusion of e-mail influence the reconfiguration of media use by gender? To what extent the reduction of gender cues in e-mail can improve equality of participation among women and men? Are cultural beliefs on gender power differences lowered or not through e-mail communication? Does gender identity correspond to commitment to the department/organisation? Does gender identity relate to trust within the department/organisation? Is the salience of gender identity crucial in determining their effects on communicating individuals? Further, to get an insight into the employees’ preference for the prevalent e-mail practice the following questions may also be posed to them: Since when have they been using e-mail? How many times per day do they use the e-mail? What do they use the e-mail for? Do they find the e-mail system easy going? Would they prefer to use other communication systems instead of e-mail? The questionnaires and interviews can be performed online. A set number of respondents from different departments can be asked to complete the online survey via an online survey tool. However, all survey respondents should be employed by the organisation. This would allow for obtaining a proper conclusion on whether there are any gender differences at work in email practices, and if there are, to what an extent are the disparities present. All the respondents should be from the same organization as that would be a control. If different organizations would be taken into consideration, the differences at work, for example variation in email practices, availability of technology, the extent to which the company is advanced, in those companies would also have to be weighted down and that would complicate the whole process. Other than the above questions further suggestions would be open and can be considered. Like the participants of the survey may be asked to tell what steps they take to maintain the quality of the contacts within their databases. Data quality management is critical to success because poor data produces poor results. Overall, respondents are doing basic 'low hanging fruit' data management: removing duplicate contacts, fixing spelling and typos, removing bounced emails and invalid domain names. These basic functions are available standard on most email platforms. The results may different relative to the gender of the participants and these differences would be pondered over and a conclusion would be reached. Secondly, participants can also be asked how far they personalize the title and/or salutation when sending email (or mail) campaigns. An example would be to use "Dear Steve", vs. "Hi" or "Dear Prospect" as the salutation. Personalizing campaigns for each recipient has proven to improve response rates for campaigns significantly (Joinson & Reips, 2005). Often, simple personalization can increase response rates by 200% or more. Case studies claim that personalization techniques have helped to increase results by a factor of 10x or more, though these are the exception. Nonetheless, personalization should be considered a requirement for all correspondence. The respondents would then be asked to help shed light on the reasons why they are not actively customizing campaigns with personalization and data segmentation. Again, there would possibly be a discrepancy between the male and female answers. Any difference in results would lead to room for discussion on the e-mail practices by males and females in a large organization. Analysis of Data After the results have been obtained, they would be categorized according to the various classes. Like all the data of one country would be put together. Further, the data would be sub divided according to the gender of the person whose response it is. Another category would be that of age as it is quite likely that older employees respond in a different manner as compared to the younger ones. Plus, the profession of the participant would also be considered. A high official male might consider the questionnaire differently than a female at a similar post. Similarly, there would probably be differences in the responses of a subordinate and the boss. Thus, the classification of the data according to different categories is important. Classification of data would allow for easier verification of the differences, if any. The number of responses obtained would also matter and so would the fact that whether there had been more responses from the males or the females of the organization. This would be important as it would show who is more into Internet and emailing and again, it would lead to discussion. Along with the number of responses, there has to be a finding in the way the replies were given. The answers from male employees would probably be different from those by the females. The data can thus be studied which may help to find a link between the kind of responses and the gender of the respondent. Through the study factors behind the respondents’ gender profiles can be identified. Such as that relating to the use of e-mail in bottom-up communication and referring to the use of email and substitution effects. According to this classification findings may suggest that men and women have quite different characteristics, considering the fact that research has found that women and en learn and navigate differently (Truong, 1993). The research can then be repeated after a year or so with very slight or no changes at all in the methodology. The results can then be tabulated and pondered over. The data from both the years can be compared minutely and a conclusion can be drawn. Any differences in the data would show the improvements or decline that has occurred relative to the gender issues in email practice in a large organization. This study would show the main differences among the respondents (uni-variate and multivariate analysis). It would take into account the gender profiles of respondents and the study of the gender gap according to specific research questions would result. Bibliography Biggiero, L. & Corsi, M. (n.d.). The Gender Dimension of Using Email at Work. [Online] Available at: http://w3.uniroma1.it/mcorsi/2.ppt [Accessed 6 March 2009]. Dholakia, R. R. & Kshetri, N. (n.d.). Gender Asymmetry in the Adoption of Internet and E-Commerce. [Online] Available at: http://www.crito.uci.edu/NOAH/HOIT/HOIT%20Papers/Gender%20Asymmetry.pdf [Accessed 2 March 2009]. Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVUC). (1997). GVU's 8th WWW User Surveys. Atlanta, GA: Georgia Tech Research Corporation. [Online] Available at: http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/survey-1997-10 [Accessed 2 March 2009]. Joinson, A. N. & Reips, U. -D. 2005. Personalized salutation, power of sender and response rates to Web-based surveys. Computers in Human Behaviour. [Online] Available at: http://www.psychologie.uzh.ch/sowi/team/reips/papers/Joinson&ReipsCHB.pdf [Accessed 2 March 2009]. King, J.L., Grinter, R.E., & Pickering, J.M.. 1997. The rise and fall of netville: The saga of a cyberspace construction boomtown in the great divide. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 3-33). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Truong, Hoai-An. 1993. Gender Issues in Online Communications. [Online] Available at: http://www.inform.umd.edu:8080/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/Computing/Articles+ResearchPapers/gender-issues-online [Accessed 6 March 2009]. Van Belle, J. –P & Stander, A. (n.d.). 2004. Gender Differences in the Perception and Use of Email in Two South African Organisation. The Electronic Journal of Communication, Volume 14 No 1. [Online] Available at: http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/InformationSystems/staff/PersonalPages/jvbelle/pubs/EJC04.DOC [Accessed 6 March 2009]. Weiser, E. B. 2000, April. Gender Differences in Internet Use Patterns and Internet Application Preferences: A Two-Sample Comparison. CyberPsychology & Behavior. 3(2): 167-178. [Online] Available at: http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/109493100316012 [Accessed 6 March 2009]. Wiburg & Karin. 1995. 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